Himalayan Honeysuckle or Flowering Nutmeg

This is an introduced species well known to gardeners trying to deal with its vigorous tendencies.

Species introduction

At a glance
Latin name: 
Leycesteria formosa
Family: 
Honeysuckles
Family Latin name: 
CAPRIFOLIACEAE
Category: 
Flowering Plants
Vernacular names: 

Pheasant berry, Flowering nutmeg

Species description

Species description

This is an introduced species well known to gardeners trying to deal with its vigorous tendencies. It is a deciduous, half-woody shrub that produces pendulous racemes with small white flowers with deep purple leaf-like petals. Autumnal berry-like fruits are sought after by birds.

Species photographs

Larger photograph(s) (click to magnify)

Details

Species family information

This is principally a north temperate family, with leaves mainly opposite along the stem. Unlike the Bindweeds the climbing honeysuckles twine clockwise. The flowers are two-lipped with five joined petals.

Category information

Nucleic multicellular photosynthetic organisms lived in freshwater communities on land as long ago as a thousand million years, and their terrestrial descendants are known from the late Pre-Cambrian 850 million years ago. Embryophyte land plants are known from the mid Ordovician, and land plant structures such as roots and leaves are recognisable in mid Devonian fossils. Seeds seem to have evolved by the late Devonian. The Embryophytes are green land plants that form the bulk of the Earth’s vegetation. They have specialised reproductive organs and nurture the young embryo sporophyte. Most obtain their energy by photosynthesis, using sunlight to synthesise food from Carbon Dioxide and Water.

The earliest known plant group is the Archaeplastida, which were autotrophic. Listing just the surviving descendants, which evolved in turn, we have the Red Algae, the Chlorophyte Green Algae, the Charophyte Green Algae, and then the Embryophyta or land plants. The earliest embryophytes were the Liverworts, followed by the Hornworts, and the Mosses. Then we have the Vascular Plants, the Lycophytes and Ferns, followed by the Spermatophytes or seed plants, the Gnetophytes, Conifers, Ginkgos, and Cycads, and finally the Magnoliophyta (Angiosperms) or flowering plants.